Over the past couple of weeks we've updated email addresses for club members
and NE friends to whom the newsletter is sent. If you have (or see) a hard-copy
of this newsletter and would like to be on the mailing list, please send an
email message to hudson@bigpond.net.au
and I'll put you on the list.

Please note that this is the 3rd edition of this newsletter for 2006 - if you
haven't seen the earlier editions, they are available from
http://emus.orienteering.com.au/

It was good to touch base with Peter Mallen at the Studley Park event -
we've missed you over the last few months Peter - welcome back!

David Hudson returned from the Philippines earlier this week; he's not
sure if the lower-leg injury that he has returned with put his Oxfam
participation at risk.

Paul Vidovich returned to power-walking this week - back from injury. Paul
took out 6th place in a very competitive field - one that was won by NE
members Rob Plant and Linh Luong. Rob and Linh turned in a superb result -
easily beating the rest of the field by 5 points or more - either very good
walking or terrific route choice. Welcome back guys!

Annual Membership now Due

Annual subscriptions are now due (we do everybody in January....). Please
re-enlist by sending $5 to Schon at the address below

Articles wanted

It doesn't take long to type up a few paragraphs about something that you
found interesting recently. We'd certainly appreciate any contributions to the
newsletter. Please send your articles/notes to
hudson@bigpond.net.au

Have you been to our website lately? We've dusted off some of the cobwebs and
updated a lot of pages - and we have a lot more planned! If you have a moment -
check out the links below for some of the recent updates:

Bayside Kangaroos has seen spectacular growth from street-O over the past 2
years. Primarily as a result of John and Jenny Sheahan's high-pressure (but very
effective) sales techniques and their commitment to social events, their club
has grown to more than 350 members. While their club is still run by the
traditional 10-20 core-members, it is clear that some of the newcomers are
beginning to contribute to the running of the club as well.

We too have seen some growth - but certainly not of this magnitude.
Nonetheless, those that have joined the club have certainly pitched in to help -
folks like Phil Giddings are always willing to help and Bruce Johnston and
daughter who participated in bush orienteering for the first time last year
helped us by organising the Westgarth streeto event for us.

The reality is that the BK tactics are only as effective as they are because
our efforts in this area are quite paltry by comparison. If we want to grow, if
we want to bring more people into our club, we need:

To see as many Emus as possible at street events; if you're not a regular
attendee, please see if you can come along whenever possible

Wear the club uniform (for info, Schon has ordered more tops - if you want
one, please let her know)

Be cheerful - talk to newcomers - talk to them after the event - and the
following week when they return. Strike up a rapport, build a relationship
with newcomers - in the near future, we will have a Northern Series
information pack that you can give to them.

Grab a few copies of the program or the Northern Series / Western Series
posters. Stick them up at work or your local library or shops. If you want
copies of these, please call Schon on 9888 8121 and we'll get them to you.

Help us out by drawing street-o maps; call Geoff if you'd like an area to
map.

It's up to us folks - we can moan about the monopolistic approaches used by
Bayside - but they are unlikely to change. We need to ramp up our efforts for
the remaining 6-8 weeks of the Summer Series - why not pitch in and lend a hand?

Late last year, we were approached by Dandenong Ranges Orienteering Club to
provide them with assistance in running a bush event during the 2006 season.
Some of you may not be aware that DROC dropped out of bush orienteering many
years back and as a result have no bush maps at this time. The return of a
strong club such as DROC to bush orienteering could be one of the best things
that has happened in Victorian Orienteering for some time - and Emus
Orienteering will provide the support and assistance required to help them do
this.

At this stage, we would propose to help out with a map, with software and
website space for the event page and results and logistical support in
planning/course-setting - as required by the folks at DROC. Their plans at this
stage is to run a more difficult maxi - while we target ours at moderate levels,
they're hoping to run one in which most legs will have hard route choices in
addition to longer/moderate legs that might be available.

DROC events are generally well organised and well run - we look forward to a
great day in the bush and would encourage other NE members to get behind this
and take part.

Various folks at the VOA have been discussing the possibility of computer
produced maps for some time - Stephan Kramer (the man that wrote the OE2000
software for use with SportIdent) has set up a small business in Europe that
provides A3 or A4 printing services directly onto waterproof
Pretex paper. Stephan reports that he printed 7500 maps in 2004 and
this grew to 17,000 maps last year. His
Quickmap Web Site
provides details of the service provided - you just send him an Ocad 8 file and
let him know how many copies of each course you want and off you go. Apparently
cost and quality is on a par with offset printing.

I wonder which club will be first to buy a colour laser for local use?
Perhaps the VOA could establish a central printing capability that we could all
use - even better if this were portable - so it could be taken to events.

VOA Policy Day

Once a year on VOA Policy Day orienteers get together to review how our sport
is tracking and where it can go or should go in the next few years. Don
Fell and Rob Edmonds will attend this coming Sunday on behalf of Emus. Some of the subjects to be
discussed are:

Schon and Lauris plan to attend the coaching weekend - if any other (female)
members would like to attend and/or share transport, please get in touch with
Schon by phone on 9888 8121 or via email at
schon@orienteering.com.au

The course is open to all women 18 years and over. If you are new to orienteering
this is for you! Come and learn the basics of bush orienteering in a friendly
and non threatening atmosphere. Orienteers will work in ability groups so
whatever your experience you will be catered for. Cost of the weekend is $127.
The course is subsidised by a grant from VicHealth.

Deadline is February 24th, but it is first come first served! Email:
voa@netspace.net.au or ring into the
Office 9459 0853 to register. Full details and registration forms will be
emailed/sent out once you register.

We've been investigating handicapping systems for a while now - with a view
to introducing such a system as a trial in the Northern Series. Recently we
received a suggested approach from Ray Howe - an approach that is relatively
easy to implement and pretty straightforward to explain. The basic concept is
that it compares each runner in a particular course to every other runner in the
course - the end result being a matrix of how many times you have competed
against each other runner and how many times you have won or lost. Such a system
allows one to compare runners in different series - as there are enough common
runners in each series to provide reference points that allow reasonable
comparison to be made.

The next step is to work out how to turn this into a usable handicap - that
impacts the way in which we run events and/or display results. As Ray suggests,
it is important that the sport recognise that to win by handicap has genuine
meaning - but to do so, the approach used has to be credible and must encourage
runners competing for the award to strive for improvement - by doing
sufficiently better than their normal performance to win by handicap.

The way in which such a system could affect the events that we run is
certainly interesting:

One possibility that has been suggested for the final/fun event is a
chasing start based on handicap. We run a scatter course, but release runners
in reverse order with the faster runners leaving several minutes behind the
slower ones. If we plan this right, the finish for each course could be very
exciting indeed!

Another possibility is to provide teams of defined handicap values that
compete together - this could be quite informal, with a draw immediately
beforehand. The benefit of such an approach is that it might group complete
strangers together and would encourage them to get to know one another - very
quickly. While running is a sole sport for many - the camaraderie engendered
by such events would be good for our sport.

A friend gave me this tiny book several years back - and recent travel on
public transport has given me the opportunity to read it. All runners, from
beginners to Olympians, will take delight in this compendium of wisdom gained
from many years of running. With clarity and wit John Jerome provides a series
of paragraphs and short excerpts on running-related topics, including
stretching, bugs, falling, spaghetti, sweat and food. A few examples...

Rescue

If you're having trouble staying motivated, seek an attitude adjustment. Stop
thinking of exercise as more of that self-improvement stuff and start thinking
of it as rescue; private time, a tranquilliser (and energizer), an antidote for
the poisons of modern life. Use exercise that way and you don't have to make
yourself do it., you have to ration the dosage.

Belief Systems

Cold itself is no real problem, since running generates body heat. Wind is
different. Weathercasters are fond of astonishing us with frightful, and not
always believable, wind- chill factors. Runners should believe.

Warming up, cooling down

The advice that comes showering down on us from the popular literature - from
coaches, trainers and other interpreters of exercise physiology - may not go in
one ear and out the other, but the only way to make it stick is to put it to
some kind of test. When we do, we turn it into a set of sensations that we not
only feel while they're going on but can remember afterward. Until we do, advice
is just words.

Warming up and cooling down fit into this category. I've been told about
careful warm-ups all my life, but I've had trouble making myself take the time.
Or I did until I trained hard enough and regularly enough to get hit in the face
with the difference between physiological warmth and cold - until I knew the
difference not with my head but with my aching muscles.

"Muscles," in that sense, is athletic slang for a complicated physiological
kit. Yes, warm muscle works better and gets injured less, just like they're
always telling us. But it isn't just muscle, it is tendon and ligament and the
rest of the connective tissue, it is joint lubricants and all the other fluids.
That sluggishness you feel is not in your head, it's in the very viscosity of
your blood. The warm-up applies profitably even to nerve tissue, synapses,
supplies of neuro-transmitters. It is simply the best means we have of sweeping
out the residues of both use and disuse, the unresolved products of yesterday's
hard work or sloth.

The same goes for cooling down, of course. Skipping that step can be
dangerous. Exercise generates adrenaline, which helps bring the heart rate up;
an abrupt halt to exercise doesn't give the system time enough to shut down the
adrenaline, which can drive the heart into dangerous arrhythmias. And if
difficult accommodations at the hormonal level don't catch your attention, then
perhaps you might want to envision the conditioning which you're leaving the
larger systems when you shut them down too quickly; all those soft tissues
engorged with wastes, spasmodic with fatigue.

The real action, however, is down there among the bits of chemistry. What
training finally teaches us is to comprehend things like the warm-up and the
cool-down at the cellular level, even the molecular level. The processes that we
are most interested in work better, and improve faster, if brought carefully up
to speed and carefully back down to normal use.

30 January - Tallyho

Finally, the weather turned cool again. Lots of emus in attendance - Ian &
Lauris, Peter Kempster (who has recently started coming along with daughter
Melissa), Peter Maloney, Schon & Geoff Hudson, Rick Bailes, Antony, Christy and
Elise Ball, Kevin Maloney and Colin and Jenny Steer. The new lighter and faster
Ian Stirling is becoming very competitive in B grade - so much so that Geoff (17
Kg heavier - a true porker...) has suggested that we introduce a handicapping
system where we make folks like Ian (and Rachel....) wear a weight belt - and we
have weigh ins before and after the event to make sure that they haven't thrown
a weight. It works in horse-racing...

31 January - Altona Mound

Our man in the the Western Series, Don Fell, extended the Altona Mound map so
that we could have a start location near the barbecues and public toilets at the
Eastern end of the park. This meant that the first control was about 600-800m
West (and so was the last control...) across open parkland - it was surprising
how many experienced orienteers got confused as they ran across the parkland.
Navigation was easy if you are a skilled orienteer with an element of cunning -
you just follow Don. As mapper for this area, he knows it like the back of his
hand - so I just tucked in behind and he took me through the park/scrub to the
first 3 controls. We split up at that point with him doing one loop and me
another. I worked out that we would meet again about 3-4 Km later at control 15
- a fence corner on the way back to the start....and sure enough, as I
approached 15, I could see Don running across the parklands towards the same
control. He pushed hard and beat me to the control - and the speed picked up for
the final 1.5 - 2 Km home. It certainly made the finish more interesting!

1 February - Studley Park

A superb evening - very cool (in contrast to recent weeks) and in pleasant
surroundings. This event used the area to the south of the boathouse - covering
the area of Collingwood and the bike tracks around the animal farm. The map was
a bit out of date and was a bit hard to read (or misleading) in a couple of
spots - causing consternation in those that couldn't find cut-throughs that were
supposed to be there, but if you had run in the area before, this wasn't too
much of a problem.

2 February - Research

We keep saying that maps can't get any steeper and then something like this
comes along to prove you wrong! Fortunately, the weather was kind - the evening
was cool with a slight breeze - and as we ran across wide open paddocks and
grassy laneways that are typical of this area, it felt really good to be alive.
Some of the uphill sections were a bit challenging, but these seem to be less
and less of an issue as we get fitter. Ian Stirling came first in B grade - a
superb effort against a very competitive field - with Peter Lewis (also NE)
coming in second. The good natured atmosphere of the Northern Series was
certainly evident - the Course Setter stressed that he had tried his best to
keep the course as flat as possible - but had failed. The organiser pointed out
that Northern Series participants were the street-O equivalent of Mountain
Runners...and that Northern Series participants generally thought that most
other maps were pretty flat (by comparison).

6 February - North Dandenong

Too far - didn't go!

7 February - Essendon

Schon forgot to bring my running gear (I have a sneaking suspicion that
this was deliberate) - so we went to dinner instead. No report....

8 February - Smith's Dell, Hawthorn

This event was run by Caulfield Grammar School on our Smith's Dell map.
Strangely, the normally crisp map seemed somewhat faded with poor contrast -
and a number of embarrassing map errors had crept in - but none of these
seemed to cause issue for the participants. Over 200 runers on the night - and
this is likely to grow as the schools participation increases over the next
few weeks.

9 February - Rosanna

It rained all day - so it was beautifully calm and cool by the time of the
event. Unsure that it would stay that way, we encouraged everybody to take a
plastic map bag - sorting through a wad of wet score cards that have stuck
together is no fun at all! This was the best run that many of us have had in
several weeks - the cooler weather allowed the pace to pick up and several
people were heard to comment that they got beaten in spite of having had their
best run in ages.

Maryborough MTBO Feb 25/26:

If members were wondering about ever trying out a MTBO event, this is the one
to start on. The tracks are not technically difficult and the area is quite
flat, the flattest we use. It would be quite OK to use a standard road bike. We
have map boards to loan out for free. Some of us are staying at the Maryborough
Caravan Park in tents and cabins. You should book your accommodation as early as
possible.

Bush Orienteering

The Season Opener is once again planned for Porcupine Ridge - this is one of
my favourite maps - well-defined spur-gully terrain with one of the prettiest
assembly/finish areas that you're ever likely to come across. Just North of
Daylesford, with Bitumen all the way to the assembly area, it's easy to get to
and provides an ideal coffee/refreshments opportunity on the way home. This is
superb terrain for both beginners and experienced orienteers that want to
strecth out and have a run - don't miss it!